


Am I Alive? (Pre-Game Danganronpa Ficlets)

by rzqrtz



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Autistic!Tenko, Fluff, Gen, Getting Together, Implied Unhealthy Behaviour, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Multi, Pre-Game Hoshi Ryoma, Pre-Game Personalities (New Dangan Ronpa V3), Pre-Game Shinguji Korekiyo, Pre-Game Tojo Kirumi, Pre-Game Yonaga Angie, Reason Unspecified, Skipping Class, Smoking, Underage Smoking, as in only taking care of others and not focusing on yourself, implied eating disorder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26843248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rzqrtz/pseuds/rzqrtz
Summary: A collection of unrelated (unless specified) pregame danganronpa ficlets, warnings may change as more posts are added, tags will be updated every update.Characters and premise of each chapter1. Angie, Korekiyo, Ryoma and Kirumi have lunch together. Tone isn't happy but it isn't overly dark either. Implied ab//se, sister shinguji mention and implied ed as well as unhealthy behaviour (helping everyone but yourself), smoking
Relationships: Chabashira Tenko/Yumeno Himiko, Hoshi Ryoma & Yonaga Angie, Shinguji Korekiyo & Yonaga Angie, Tojo Kirumi & Yonaga Angie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Friendship Bracelets

**Author's Note:**

> Angie, Korekiyo, Ryoma and Kirumi have lunch together. Tone isn't happy but it isn't overly dark either. Implied ab//se, sister shinguji mention and implied ed as well as unhealthy behaviour (helping everyone but yourself), smoking
> 
> 560 Words

“You guys need to stop being so down all the time. Seriously!” Angie greets her friends with a big wave and a matching smile. Kiyo and Ryoma don’t smile back but the corners of Kirumis lips tug upwards slightly. Angie scrunches up her face and grabs the half finished cigarette from Ryomas hand and the one from in between Kirumis lips, causing her to cough on the smoke. Kiyo has already began to stomp his out and eat a mint before lifting up his mask. “Those are bad for you and you need to eat.” She pulls her lunchbag from her backpack and pulls out four boxes, each with a piece of tape with all of their names lovingly handwritten.

Kirumi accepts hers and smiles a little “Thanks Angie, I’ll try to start remembering my lunch so you don’t have to keep making them for me.”

Angie doesn’t point out that she says that every day, instead she smiles through her worry and starts to pick at her own lunch.

Ryoma and Angie make idle conversation about school, Ryoma has gym, math, business and history this semester, Angie has art, fashion, science and law. She puts her food aside before even getting halfway through her apple and pulls out the bracelet she’s currently working on.

Her friends don’t say anything about her constantly insisting they eat and rarely doing it herself. Although she catches the sad glance she gets from Ryoma.

Halfway through lunch Kiyos phone starts to ring, based on the panic stricken look on his face Angie can only asume it’s his sister.

“Let it go to voicemail.” Kirumi slips the phone from Kiyos hands as she says that and turns it off, pocketing it. A strange mixture of relief and anxiety build on Kiyos face. He hasn’t said anything all lunch and Angie doubts he could say anything if he answered. Sometimes Kiyo gets like that, if it’s a particularly bad day, he won’t say a word.

“Here! This ones for you! See it matches your hair and eyes!” Angies cheery voice doesn’t seem to fully reach Kiyo over the ringing phone but he lifts his hand up for Angie to slip the newly finished bracelet onto his wrist alongside the many others already there anyways.

Angie pulls more string from her bag and cuts it, repeating the process with pinks and blues this time. Maybe that Kaede girl in her science class will like it, she seems in need of a friend.

Ryoma nods at Angies bare wrists “You’re always making bracelets but you never keep any? Shouldn’t you make some for yourself sometime?”

“Oh whoops. I guess I just never really thought of making one for myself.” She giggles slightly. “Do you think Kaede will like this? I don’t really know her but she seems nice.” Ryoma scoffs, and Angie frowns.

“Nice? Never thought I’d hear the day someone referred to her as nice. But yeah, she might like it I guess, nice colors.” Angie nods, the blue matches her sneakers and the pink matches her eyes, that’s where she got the colors from anyways.

The rest of lunch is passed in silence, Angie quietly works on her bracelet and her friends eat. Then the bell rings, breaking the small semblance of peace the four friends had and sending them back into the real world. 


	2. Chalkboard Carvings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes that is a Persona reference
> 
> Tenmiko, no warnings apply

AN: This is a Pregame AU based on our reality where Danganronpa became an international hit with huge sales numbers outmatching even Mario Jumpman Mario himself and basically saved the PSP. As a result Sony is still in the handheld game and made multiple editions of the PSP before moving on to their next generation of handhelds “PlayStation Portable X” and they never felt the need to ruin all of our lives with the PS Move. Also XBox never felt the need to make the Kinect because they didn’t need to copy Nintnedo since Sony won the seventh generation and instead decided to try to follow Sony into the handheld game however due to a lack of third party support and the only Halo game on the system being a shitty port it failed and XBox went back to only doing consoles. Because they were focusing on handhelds instead of copying Nintendo they never made the Kinect (and as a result never made me want to burst into immediate tears) and because of that Sony never made the PlayStation Camera. The Wii was still insanely popular but it was mostly only appealing to casuals and the reaction to motion controls was even more outrage than in our universe. As a result the motion control craze never really took off and Himiko and Tenko never had to play Skyward Sword with motion controls.

History is possibly the worst class Himiko has this semester. Not only is it boring but it’s also one of the two classes she doesn’t share with Tenko. At least with anthropology she can copy Kiyo’s notes and sleep the entire time without anyone caring.

Himiko’s phone lights up with a text and she smiles when she sees Tenko’s contact on the screen.

Tenko: wanna meet on the roof?

Tenko: careers is possibly the most worthless idiotic subject we have at this school

Tenko: if youre going to bore us to death at least do it without making our existential dread towards the future worse

You: ill be there in a minute

You: just need a good chance to leave without unui noticing

You: is this stuff even in the curriculum?

You: what the fuck is “magistrates patronage” and why am i learning about it in history class

Tenko: sounds stupid

Tenko: just get up here im lonesome </3

Mr. Unui looks at the board to write something down and Himiko takes the opportunity to slip out of the classroom. She goes unnoticed for the most part and those that do notice stay blessedly quiet.

She walks with her head up at a quick pace and all teachers she passes look convinced that she has something important to do so she makes it to the roof without fanfare. The door is supposed to be locked but some kid broke it open years ago and no one has ever bothered to fix it.

“Tenkooooooo! I missed you!” Himiko runs over to Tenko as soon as she sees her and throws her arms around her shoulders.

Tenko is playing Dangan Ronpa Original Dance on her PSPX, it’s a rhythm game based off of Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair. Himiko had insisted that it was just a lame cash grab (which it totally is) but Tenko had bought it anyways and ended up loving it.

Himiko prefers the fighting game spin offs but it’s impossible to hold too much animosity to the rhythm games since they make Tenko happy.

There’s old desks on the roof, doodles and chipped wood litter the top. She leaves Tenko to her game and hops up onto one of the desks, her legs don’t touch the ground so she swings them back and forth below her. While she waits for Tenko to finish the round she pulls out her pocket knife and carves H+T in a heart on about the 15th desk so far. It’s also been carved into multiple window sills and chalkboards throughout the school.

The end of the song plays and Tenko shuts off her PSPX and pops it back into it’s Mahiru case. Her Hiyoko keychain taps against the plastic. Once that’s sorted she pulls a plastic grocery store bag out of her backpack and puts it on the desk in between them. “Lunch!” The lunch is nothing like what she normally has, by that she means it isn’t instant ramen.

Tenko hands her an energy drink, the white one, her favourite, then also hands her an apple. She pauses, tilts her head and takes the apple back again. She takes Himiko’s knife from her and wipes it off then chops the apple into slices on a piece of paper towel.

Himiko takes the apple slices back from Tenko and begins to eat them gratefully, she got her braces off a year ago but she still doesn’t eat whole apples.

Himiko takes a sip of her drink then goes to speak “I want to work on a ‘report’ kind of thing on all of the Danganronpa characters. I just feel like there’s so many misconceptions. Could you look over it, Tenko?” Tenko pulls two cheese buns out of the bag and hands one to Himiko before responding with a nod. Tenko is basically a walking encyclopedia when it comes to Danganronpa so Himiko can’t think of a better person to help her with this, that and Tenko is basically the only person Himiko ever wants to work with.

Tenko’s been pretty quiet so far, she gets like that sometimes, she’s usually either extremely talkative or almost completely silent. At first Himiko thought Tenko got quiet because she was upset and while that is sometimes the reason as they got to know each other Himiko began to tell how Tenko was feeling even without words.

“You can keep playing, you know. It doesn’t bother me.” Himiko’s hand brushes against her pocket to wipe off the juice from the apple slices and she feels a slight bump and remembers “I made you this!” She pulls out a small keychain, it’s a print she made of her drawing of Tenko’s Dangansona, she pulls out another and shows it to Tenko, it’s her own self insert. Himiko is the SHSL Magician and Tenko is the SHSL Aikido Master. “We’re matching!” Tenko grins and puts it on the keyring on her PSPX case.

Himiko practically melts, the only keychains she’s ever put on her Mahiru case (her favourite case) are Hiyoko keychains (her favourite character). Himiko lets out a happy “nyeh” and Tenko smiles at her with this look so warm it could compete with the sun.

Tenko goes back to tapping something on her phone. Himiko’s phone lights up and she opens her texts with Tenko.

Tenko: uh i need to tell you something

Tenko: wait i should say this out loud

Tenko: fuckkkk

“Will you be my girlfriend Himiko?” Himiko’s head springs up to stare at Tenko with wide eyes. She’s chewing her lip and ringing her hands so Himiko quickly acts to calm her nerves.

“Yes I’ll be your girlfriend Tenko! You’re the only person I’d ever want to date!” Himiko figures that’s a little forward for having just become girlfriends moments ago but is there really ‘too forward’ when you’ve been best friends and flirting with each other for five years?

She springs up off the desk, her feet make a loud noise on the roof when she drops off, and runs to wrap her arms around Tenko. They’re grinning like idiots, but Himiko doesn’t think she’s ever been happier than she is in this moment on the roof of her stupid fucking school with her perfect amazing girlfriend wrapped in her arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written for day three (February third) of Femslash February!


	3. The Law of Joint Enterprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Outsider POV of Shuichi before and after Danganronpa V3. Includes bullying and a PTSD flashback (triggered purposefully by a bully)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing an outsider POV and honestly it was really fun!

To someone who knew him in elementary school Shuichi’s behaviour would seem strange. A far cry to his bubbly and confident younger self. But to his classmates Shuichi Saihara is a quiet, uninteresting boy.

He transferred to the academy, a prissy rich school paid for by bratty kids important mommy’s and daddy’s, three years ago. He was always quiet, in the beginning his eyes were always rimmed red and he often left in the middle of class to cry in the bathroom. Now he just walks with a scary aura to him. Looking at him feels like seeing a ghost, his eyes are vacant and sunken and his chapped lips are tilted in a permanent frown.

He carries around a PSP in his bag and is always listening to music through his earbuds.

He’s invisible to everyone but the occasional student who sits behind him and watches him play games in favour of listening to their teachers drone on. If you were to ask one of them it’s likely they’d have seen him playing one of the 51 Danganronpa games or their spin offs. An especially astute student could tell you that his case is littered in Sailor Moon stickers and that he has the game version of Danganronpa 52 pre purchased and waiting on his home screen.

Third year students could tell you that Shuichi was ruthlessly bullied for the first semester of his first year. However they wouldn’t be able to give you a straight answer on why the bullying stopped. Rumors had run like wild fire in drylands at first but with no believable answer in sight interest dwindled quickly.

Year old questions were finally answered in the hallway by the lockers on a chilly Friday when a new kid tried to make fun of Shuichi for the Sailor Moon bracelet that he wears well hidden under his uniform.

It all happened so suddenly that no one really had time to react. One moment a stocky boy was making a snide remark and the next Shuichi had him pinned against the lockers with a knife spinning in his hand.

The student body heard Shuichi’s voice for the first time since he first transferred. It was quiet and scratchy from disuse but a low “Watch it” reverberates like it’s being said through a megaphone in the silent hallway. Shuichi drops the other boy and pockets his knife before returning to class like the entire event never happened.

The boy doesn’t come to school the next day. Somehow it seems likely that the two events are related.

Open audition times were posted for Danganronpa 53 and someone saw Shuichi take a picture of the information. Apparently his eyes had shone with life and he had walked to the train station with far more life than usual.

Shuichi stops coming to school a month before the first live episode of Danganronpa 53 is set to air. No one connects the dots until Shuichi is predominantly featured in the very first trailer since the cast had been chosen for Danganronpa 53, now known as V3 Killing Harmony.

***

Shuichi comes back the same but not the same. His posture is straighter, he doesn’t play Danganronpa anymore, he spends a lot of time watching magical girl animes or on his phone playing Sailor Moon Drops. He’s different in those ways but the shallowness of his eyes doesn’t leave and his mouth is still permanently downturned.

Before V3 Shuichi had never been seen with another person before, during, or after school. Now he walks home with Kaede Akamatsu who apparently goes to a bordering school. She isn’t as bright as she seemed on screen, much closer to her interview counterpart. She wears a leather jacket over her school uniform, the boys version, and glares at anyone who looks at the two for too long. She seems soft too though, in the way her lips turn up when she talks to Shuichi and in the way she plays with the Sanrio keychains on her keyring while she waits for Shuichi after school.

One day Kaede and Shuichi appear together in an interview. The interviewer asks average questions, what did they think of their in game characters, were they still close with the other cast members, those things. Kaede mainly takes over for Shuichi during these parts but the two freeze up when the interviewer asks a seemingly unscripted question. “We found out recently that the two of you went to elementary school together. Did you know each other?” Shuichi’s breath obviously catches and his eyes go visibly vacant in a way that's usually only apparent in person, he’s on the film set physically but anyone could see that he’s somewhere far far away in his mind.

After a moment Kaede goes back to taking over the conversation “We were good friends actually! I was the one who started Shuichi’s Sailor Moon obsession actually!” She elbows him good naturedly and he reacts stiffly with false embarrassment. “We drifted when he moved schools though, I’m so grateful Danganronpa gave us the chance to meet again!” The segment soon ends after that.

The more time passes the more Kaede and Shuichi seem to be glued together. As soon as the last bell rings Shuichi is outside walking right next to Kaede and occasionally other members of the cast of V3. None of them ever have Danganronpa merchandise on them which is strange considering most people at Danganronpa auditions now are either in desperate need of money or superfans.

The group  _ looks  _ happy. Definitely more relaxed than any of them ever look alone but all of their shoulders sag just a little too heavy and their eyes are all a little too dull.

One day during second period the boy who originally made fun of Shuichi for his Sailor Moon bracelet came up with a plan to take revenge on him. Most people in the class agreed this was entirely uncalled for, Shuichi had possibly become even more mellow and inoffensive since he came back from Danganronpa.

Class is about to begin and students are filing in when the boy walks up to the speakers at the front of the class and plugs in his phone. The first sound to come out of the phone startles everyone  _ Ding Dong Dong Ding.  _ The body discovery music blares over the classes speakers. Most people barely pay it a glance but Shuichi is visibly tense, he’s curled inwards and looks like he’s trying to become smaller and smaller until he disappears entirely.

The next song is one only some students place;  _ Clair De Lune.  _ The song that played during Kaede’s brutal and long drawn out execution. Shuichi clamps his hands over his ears and his face contorts so tightly it must be painful.

Eventually a student runs out to get the teacher and the music is put to a stop. Shuichi runs out of the class and isn’t seen for the rest of the week.

When he does come back to school he somehow seems even smaller and more insignificant than he did before. His eyes dart around constantly and his music is now played so loud in his headphones that the lyrics can be heard by the entire classroom.

When the school bell rings Shuichi and the majority of the student body walk outside and see what is basically an entire panel of celebrities. Every participant of Danganronpa V3 is waiting for Shuichi outside the gate, including Tsumugi. A small shocked gasp escapes him and he rushes over to the group.

Student reports say that the group had hunted down the student who had caused Shuichi’s panic attack and left Kaito to his own devices.

Kaito, as everyone who pays attention, had learned is not the same as he was inside the simulation. He’s imposing for one, his height and muscle seem far bigger than they did with that jacket half on and a huge grin on his face, and he doesn’t smile as wide, closed mouthed smiles are common but it’s rare that he flashes a full smile.

The student transfers schools soon after. When Shuichi’s pestered over it he doesn’t give a response, just turns up his music volume and pretends he can’t hear them.

Shuichi is friends with a group of killers. That notion passes around school one day and it’s the first time Shuichi’s ever dignified something related to the killing game with a response at school.

He hears a loudly whispered argument about if the murders  _ counted  _ and Shuichi finally snaps.

“We were all just puppets for a sick excuse for entertainment. If you really think about it, that makes all of you instigators for watching and enjoying Danganronpa. The Law of Joint Enterprise states that someone who encouraged the act can be tried with the same crime as the person who committed it. Stop worrying so much about things that don’t concern you or you might not like what you find.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: I just want to say that Shuichi's remark at the end is not supposed to sound cool or whatever. It's supposed to come off like Light Turner in the shitty Netflix movie telling the bully that he could get in a lot of trouble for beating up a minor. Shuichi's epic and I love him don't get me wrong but the only reason no one laughed in his face is because 1. He is friends with a lot of scary people and 2. He looked death in the eye and won.


End file.
